Still raining

The weather has continued to be very wet, with rain every day of May and an associated slowing-down of sightings. I have managed to sneak out in the less wet spells, however, and made the best of the bad light.

Lady's Mantle tends to sneak up and surprise you. One day it's invisible, and the next the flowers are out. The large folded leaves are ideal for insects such as micromoths to make their larval 'spinnings' for their shelter.

Lady's Mantle

The fronds of Male Fern have only just unfurled and the spore-bearing sori are already in place (although they will remain empty for quite some time, yet).)

Sori of Male Fern

The hedgerow has at least five species of Potentilla (and also the hybrid P. x mixta) in various places along its length. Silverweed is one of the easiest to identify, with its downy silver leaves:

Silverweed

The striking Marsh Cinquefoil is currently in bud, so I'll show pictures of that very soon, weather permitting.

The Orange Tip larva that I showed the other day is now about 4mm long. Note the damage to the seedpod, which the larva has caused by eating it. This is the only foodstuff that the larva will ever eat, moving from one pod to another as it finishes each one off.

Orange Tip larva showing pod damage

Bumblebee workers are busy in the gaps in the rain. They're still very small, so I suspect the rain has limited their pollen-gathering ability to quite an extent.

Bumblebee worker landing on Raspberry flower

Ichneumonids have started to appear in large numbers, which is no great surprise: their target moth and butterfly larvae are fattening up nicely, now.

Ichneumonid on Cow Parsley

Ichneumonid (left) and the hoverfly Syritta pipiens

The second shot also includes a rear view of a male Syritta pipiens hoverfly.

The next shot took me a couple of hours to tie down to species. It's a Lesser Dungfly which keys out to Cordilura rufimana. The Cordilura family is quite large, with some 22 species on the BI list. Most are dung-feeders as larvae, but C. rufimana appears to feed on the rootstock of various plants.

The Lesser Dungfly Cordilura rufimana

Surprisingly similar, but totally unrelated, is the Stilt Fly Neria cibaria. These have a strange habit of lowering their mouth to the upper surface of leaves and then rocking backwards and forwards on those long legs, shaving the upper surface of the leaf, presumably for food.

Neria cibaria - a Stilt Fly

A couple of sawflies next:

The first is on Broad Buckler fern:

Sawfly on Broad Buckler fern

And this is one of the Tenthredo sp.:

Tenthredo sp. Sawfly 

The Hoverfly Cheilosia albitarsis is an associate of Creeping Buttercup. The extremely similar (and only very recently segregated) Cheilosia ranunculi is thought to associate with Bulbous Buttercup.

The hoverfly Cheilosia albitarsis

Two shots of very small (6mm) soldier beetles from the Rhagonycha family: 

First, Rhagonycha limbata: 

Rhagonycha limbata

And secondly, Rhagonycha lignosa, which is associated with Hawthorn flowers during the early part of its season, and can be separated from the species above by the all-dark thorax:

Rhagonycha lignosa

Rhagonycha lignosa is a new species for my list.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed one of the pollen-stealing cuckoo bees. This one looks to be another member of the same family: Nomada flava.

The kleptoparasitic cuckoo bee Nomada flava

Rhagonycha section of this page has been updated to correct the identification of Rhagonycha lignosa.

Still more new

The Buff Tip moth - Phalera bucephala - is instantly recognisable due to its astonishing similarity to a snapped twig. I hadn't seen it in the flesh, although I recognised it quickly enough. It's new to me, as are the next four species. The high number of new species I'm finding at the moment is almost certainly due to the excellent spell of hot weather which is encouraging insects to stay in the open longer.

This is one of the Stilt Flies, so-called due to the long legs. The head is almost completely composed of two large eyes, which aids the hunt for other insect prey. Neria cibaria:

Since I recorded my first new species for Ireland in 2004, I've continued to add a couple of new species each year. Most of those are new records simply because nobody else had been looking closely enough, but some are genuine rarities. This leaf-mining fly - Agromyza ranunculivora - which mines Creeping Buttercup, seems to be a first record for Ireland, and the NBN gateway only shows a couple of records in England. Certainly the standard reference for leaf-miners didn't have an image. It does now.

This tiny (5mm) Capsid bug is quite common, but it's still the first time I've seen it. It's Capsus ater, and is associated with various grasses:

At first glance, this hoverfly might seem to be one of the very common Eristalis species, but a second glance shows the yellow hairs, a wing shade and extra small spots of yellow on the abdomen. That makes it Eristalis horticola which is widespread but never numerous. This is the third or fourth specimen that I've seen:

Many of the Sepsid flies have a single spot on the wing, and they run around the top of leaves waving their wings in some sort of semaphore signalling system. They're always on the go, so they're very difficult to photograph. Same size as an ant: